Remember Joe Wicks, the chirpy gym bunny whose YouTube channel got children exercising during lockdown? He was quite famous in the spring of 2020 but was rather less famous five years later. In 2021, at the peak of its success, Joe Wicks Ltd. had £2,181,299 in the bank. By 2024, it had just £78,758.
Whether the fading fame and fortune of Mr Wicks had anything to do with his decision to get onboard the bandwagon against ultra-processed food (UPF), we may never know, but it has certainly got him back on prime time TV. He has been on the breakfast sofa with Ed Balls and Susanna Reid, and viewers were treated to a whole hour of him on Channel 4 this week (Joe Wicks: Licensed to Kill). His promotional device is the “Killer” protein bar which he has created and is portraying as “the most dangerous health bar” ever. It supposedly causes cancer, stroke and heart disease — and yet it is legal! Why won’t the government do something?!
Inevitably, the documentary involves Wicks going on a poorly scripted “journey” to discover the truth about what is really going on in our food environment, blah, blah, blah. Equally inevitably, his tutelage leans heavily on the opinions of Chris van Tulleken who has recently been made a professor and is beginning to look as crazy as he sounds. For cinematic reasons, van Tulleken is portrayed as living in a dimly lit, underground laboratory surrounded by bottles of dangerous chemicals. The vibe is that of a strange but brilliant scientist who has accidentally unleashed the zombie apocalypse and is humanity’s only hope of ending it. Once Wicks gets to work manufacturing his unhealthy snack, van Tulleken occasionally surfaces with an intense stare, urging his youngish protégé to see it through to the end.
Read the rest at The Critic.
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